UC Riverside philosophy professor John Martin Fischer has been awarded $5 million from the John Templeton Foundation to dig “into such mysteries as whether …everlasting [life] might just prove to be ever-boring,” and whether believing “in a heaven and hell makes people less likely to commit crimes,” the Los Angeles Times reports.

Fischer’s Immortality Project will apply strict scientific standards to research on matters such as near-death experiences and possible forms of eternal life. He will use the grant to give smaller research awards to neuroscientists, physicians, psychiatrists, sociologists, philosophers and theologians to conduct experiments and studies.